Bolivian journalist who exposed corruption is threatened

New York, September 12,
2011--The
Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the repeated death threats and
harassment of a journalist who exposed corruption in the Bolivian government's Institute of Forensic
Investigations this April.

On
April 3, La Prensa, a daily based in
the city of La Paz,
published an exposé by Bolivian journalist Mónica
Oblitas on Erika Hinojosa, a forensic pathologist, after the newspaperreceived several tips that the official
was issuing false documents. Posing as a patient, Oblitas asked Hinojosa for a
medical certificate confirming that she had been assaulted. The journalist
filmed her encounter with Hinojosa with a hidden camera and wrote that the
pathologist issued the certificate in exchange for money and never examined her
for wounds.

A
few weeks after the publication of the story, Oblitas said she began receiving
threatening anonymous cell phone calls, text messages, and emails. Callers
threatened to shoot her and break her legs, the journalist said, and one caller
even said her days were numbered. Other callers described what her son was
wearing while he went to his university classes. Oblitas said that one text
message appeared to refer directly to her investigative piece, warning her,
"You like to play with forensics. The next case will be yours." The journalist
said she received more than 20 such messages since mid-April, with the most
recent one occurring on Wednesday. She also said she has twice been followed
between her home and her La Prensa
office and that the windows to her apartment were broken on one occasion. She
told CPJ that she filed a police report in August. "I am very scared because I
don't know when they will come after me next," she said.

"We
are very worried for the safety of Mónica Oblitas and her family," said Carlos
Lauría, CPJ Americas Senior Program Coordinator. "Bolivian authorities must
take all steps to protect her and ensure that journalists can practice critical
reporting without fear of reprisal."

In
an appearance on a television program, Hinojosa said the allegations against
her were false, yet she was removed from her post on April 14, press reports said.

Death
threats against journalists in Bolivia are
relatively rare, though three reporters were targeted in 2009. Violence
against the press has lessened in recent years after a spew of bloody attacks in 2008 during a period
of intense political tension.